We have been discussing the changing roles within law firms, and how partners within most corporate law firms can be categorized as Finders, Minders, or Grinders. Furthermore, the market has decided that Finders have the most value, economically and otherwise. And that leads to a question: If the dynamics of law firms have changed, and the relationships between lawyers and their firms have changed, should there be changes in what is taught within America’s law schools? After all, law schools are the foundation of the entire legal industry. All of the lawyers in America (with a few exceptions) began their legal careers when they enrolled as first-year law students (1Ls) in one of the nation’s more than 200 law schools.
Perhaps better than any other institutions, law schools teach the essential life skills of verbal communication, written communication, persuasion, listening, and critical thinking. These skills are of paramount importance to lawyers and nonlawyers alike. I cannot imagine any educational institution that does a better job of teaching these than a good law school. Although I have not practiced law in over 20 years, I use all of those skills every single day in my business. There is a lot that law schools get right.
However, a common complaint is that in most law schools, much of the current curriculum remains focused on legal theory as opposed to practical education. This is by design. Most law schools have long maintained that their primary purpose is to teach students how to think, specifically how to “think like a lawyer.”
In recent years, more and more law students have pushed back on this idea. Their primary complaint is that they pay a great sum of money and spend three years of their lives attending law school, but when they graduate, they have no idea how to actually be a lawyer.
In their view, there is too much theory and not enough practical instruction in their education. In response to this, some law professors and law school administrators counter that law school is not a trade school. Moreover, they continue, law schools have already put more emphasis on clinics, trial advocacy, internships, and other programs for the express purpose of providing more practical instruction in addition to legal theory.
We will continue our look at these two opposing points of view in the next article.
